IT is reassuring to know that after Cadbury was gobbled up by Kraft Foods of the US there are still British companies able to do large overseas deals so takeover traffic is not all one way.

Prudential’s new chief executive Tidjane Thiam is on the brink of pulling off a $35.5billion deal he justifies by billing it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will transform the company.

Analysts and investors believe the logic is sound even though accompanying fund raising sent the shares tumbling.

Prudential went to great lengths to play down speculation that its planned megadeal would signal a retreat from the UK.

It is nearly a decade since the last “Man From the Pru” knocked on a British door but that traditional way of selling insurance and collecting the payments remains popular in the Far East, where the growing middle class has a huge appetite for insurance and pensions products. The remaining British business may be safe for now but if Thiam’s coup comes off, the Pru’s willingness to stick to its roots may be tested in the long-term.

HSBC’s Michael Geoghegan has shown where the future may lie for the Pru, having moved his chief executive’s office from London to Hong Kong to be nearer the action.

From there he took the unusual step of pledging his £4million bonus payment to charity. That misses the point. The issue is not whether the money is given to worthy causes or spent on fast cars but whether bonuses are justified in the first place. Since HSBC has not had to be bailed out by taxpayers, that is a matter for its shareholders. They are unlikely to kick up a fuss after collecting $5.9billion in dividends in the past year.

Yesterday’s approval of the planned merger of Orange and T-Mobile is likely to mark the start of a shake-up in the mobile phone industry. The networks are buzzing with speculation from insiders and analysts about what happens next and already there is talk that the smallest operator, 3, may have to merge with Vodafone.